Gates, gates, gates
I took Tia up onto where I do interval training - 1/3 mile of rising field - today for the first time. She coped brilliantly with the stony track up there. And had a batptism of fire with gate opening. We had eight to do in all, four up and the same four back. None of them easy, three of which don't even swing freely. One with EIGHT padlocks on it, which is a devil to get done back up as the chain is also dead short and of course very heavy with all those padlocks! She was great. Very babyish and confused, but she stayed calm and I didn't have to get off for any of them, though several took more than one attempt to get open or shut.
We had a really nice whizz - she set off at a rate of knots and then realised how uneven the ground was and took it a bit easier. She was out of puff at the top, so she's not really fit enough yet. I would prefer her to be finding that length of canter easy on a first run. But she is a "high blower" - she makes that prrrrr sound as she breathes and I do love that noise! (not on breathing in, that's a vet failure, only on breathing out which is a trait of highly bred horses).
:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( I have managed to mark her with her new saddle - the gullet is too wide, and it has allowed the gullet plate to touch her when I leaned forward and over doing gates. I have tried more air and if that doesn't do the job then I will get her a narrower gullet when one comes up on eBay with it. It's only a raise in the skin, which I'm hoping will have disappeared in a few hours.
Tetley is still too unsound to ride, but happy enough.
FOOT FETISH UPDATE
Tia's front feet are now a matching pair and beautiful. She is getting some bottom edge chipping where the inner and outer wall separate in little "pockets" and the top lamina comes off. Casper's feet also did that for a couple of months. She has one back foot, the one with an old injury, which is flatter than the other. But yesterday the sole chalked in and it's about to go as concave as the other I think.
Tetley had something very strange happen in his worst foot, the off fore. He lost a huge piece of white line from the inside edge. There was a trench about 5 or more milimetres deep with a great thick piece of hoof wall which was not attached to anything. The sole went chalky all down the edge and fell off when I scraped it with a hoof pick, leaving an even wider trench. Although his foot seemed balanced, I decided that with hoof wall hanging out there with no support, it should come off. It was on the quarter, so I figured it would simply leave him with a wild horse shape hoof, which is what his back ones do anyway - they have no hoof wall in contact with the ground on the sides. So I rasped it away, and as I did his foot came into an absolutely perfect shape, for the first time since he went shoeless. There is still a stretching of the outside edge, but the inside wall is now totally correct.
In addition to this, he lost over 1/3 inch off the end of all four frogs last week. When I started this, his feet were 7 inches long and the frogs finished less than an inch from the outside wall, over 6 inches long. Now, his feet are 6 1/2 inches long and his frogs are only about 2/3 of that - less than 5 inches. It is taking 2 years or more to put right the damage of the previous 6, but we are still getting improvements in Tetley's feet month after month. Nature is a miracle when it's allowed to be.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 3:21 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
"We had eight to do in all, four up and the same four back. None of them easy, three of which don't even swing freely. One with EIGHT padlocks on it, which is a devil to get done back up as the chain is also dead short and of course very heavy with all those padlocks!"
do you want to give lessons in gate opening then? Molly's still at the panic stage with them, and whilst she'll do the very odd easy one, stiff/swing back quickly aren't on yet and as for padlocks! blimey!
Isn't she clever? Tia that is. I'm impressed again ....
Tucker, the "insulted" horse never raced. He was put up for adoption after his breeder returned him to his mother's owner as a reject because of a severe club foot.
The new owner took him to a major university clinic and had the check ligament surgery to drop his heel. It was a great success as it takes a really close inspection to notice any sign of the club now, and he is very sound.
I adopted him, sight unseen from a photograph posted at the adoption group (Crossed Saber Stables) website when he was but a yearling. Talk about daring, eh?
He is from a strong US racing line with some good breeding, but, as I recall, horses from his line are a bit opinionated. He has not been a good "outside the ring" horse despite a good month of trail riding in the mountains with Kenny Harlow. Since he has bucked me off after a "B52" size horsefly attack, I have been a bit timid about taking him out on hacks. I am no longer the nervy rider who tackled cross country courses with reckless gusto, so we tend to stay in the ring doing dressage.
Tucker (Doitright Tobe) seems quite happy with that and doesn't get bored so far. He is quite proud of himself once he masters an exercise and has a definite air of arrogant confidence about how things are supposed to be done.
I know you don't believe in animal communicators, but when I had trouble with Tucker bucks early on, my communicator said he told her that it was because when I "kicked" him to get him to go forward, I was being "rude." The comment was just perfect. Sounds just like him.
How the heck do you get 8 padlocks undone from the saddle? Just the sheer physical effort of that seems pretty daunting. My horses would stand, but I'm not sure I could manage all the work myself. *G*
I am impressed that Tia's feet have coped so well in such a short time and also interested to hear how Tetley's are still altering after 2 years.
Eight padlocks all on the same chain Jean - it makes the chain a monster to manage from horseback, but I only have to open one of them.
Ah yes, Claire, it's strange how some horses just panic at being asked to move one step at a time up to a gate, or stay sideways alongside one as you try to open or shut it. Tia doesn't panic, so repetition and patience got us there each time with not much trouble. Another ex racer I had once jumped a gate from a standstill and fell flat on his face. Scooby did the same once, but he cleared it - a 5 bar wood gate from a distance of 6 inches :-0
Anon, it is interesting how quickly a horse which has good feet can manage barefoot. It helps that she was shoeless when they bought her and again for at least a few months of last summer. And their farrier was obviously top notch too. There is no sign whatsoever of her needing any help or boots at the moment, she is solid on her feet and oblivious to stones rough surfaces.
C.
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